Ghost to the Rescue
by machievelli
Summary: When Leia and Han are kidnapped on a remote planet, Luke has help from the best special operations team in the Galaxy, Section Nine!


Ghost to the Rescue

A crossover piece with Section 9 from Ghost in the Shell and Star Wars.

The _Millennium Falcon_ spiraled over the planet Tekara, and her crew looked at it for the first time. Trapped in the middle of a stellar dust cloud, it had been ignored during the Old Republic, the Clone Wars, the Empire, the rebellion and the recent formation of the New Republic.In fact if one of Talon Karrde's ships hadn't ducked into the cloud to escape an Imperial Patrol a few years earlier, it would have remained uncontacted even now.

The cloud was made up not only of dust but fine electrically charged sand that disabled particle shielding. Anything that entered it was treated like a building being sandblasted. The larger it was, the faster, it was, the more dangerous that passage.

Which was why the Empire had so far failed to occupy it. Anything much larger than a light freighter would be literally sandblasted to destruction. Tie fighters came apart as if made of cheap plastic.

Located near the edge of what was now the border with Imperial controlled space, they were a bone to be fought over. Yet they had resisted threats and blandishments with equal equanimity. So the Republic had brought out their big guns.

"Why did they send you princess?" Han asked.

His wife, Leia, leaned forward looking at the world below them. "Because our ambassador failed so miserably."

I could have told them that would happen." Han snorted. Fek'lara, the Bothan that had been sent was abrasive and arrogant. "Sending him was like expecting a starveling hound to ignore a bowl of food."

Leia shook her head smiling. "He is a bit… forceful." Chewbacca roared, and Han laughed. "What did he say?"She asked

Han just laughed harder, reaching over to touch the communications panel. He set his headset, and suddenly he was smooth and professional. "Nihon approach, this is _Millennium Falcon_."

"This is the Republic of Nihon; Niihama Field approach, hold one moment, _Millennium Falcon_. Is this the New Republic ambassadorial transport?"

"Yes and no, Niihama."

"Which is it?" The voice was not suspicious, merely curious.

"The ship is my personal property, and I am transporting my wife who happens to be the negotiator."

"Ah." The voice now sounded a bit amused. "You are welcome to our nation, _Millennium Falcon_. Please follow the approach corridor exactly. Our neighbors to the east and west can be a bit hostile."

"Divided nations." Leia murmured as Han broke the connection. "A dream environment for the Empire. All they need to do is support one nation over the others, unification by force."

"Probably why they want all of us to leave them alone." Han said.

"I am not here to drag them into the Republic. We're just requesting that they allow us to buy supplies when necessary. This is just the first stop here, Han. There are by their own admission almost a hundred different nations here. We can ignore the smaller ones, but that leaves fifteen that we will have to contact." She sighed. "At least most of them have representatives in Niihama."

Han grunted. He'd seen first hand what could happen when local governments bickered, long before he had gotten involved with the Rebellion.

"_Millennium Falcon_ on approach to Niihama field."

The voice that answered was different, clipped and businesslike. "This is Niihama field, landing pad seven is cleared and ready for your arrival." A blip appeared on the navigation screen, and the ship shifted course slightly. The city spread across a peninsula and several islands that made up the main harbor. Then it leaped upward to over a kilometer in height in glassine spires. The field was on the edge of the city with a blast deflecting berm that surrounded the spaceport while leaving the landing strips necessary for aircraft.

Han spotted the landing pad, and shifted off the engines, using just the repulsorlifts to slide over the berm. Two men stood near the main door watching as the ship settled light as thistledown. The shutdown was smooth, and Leia stood. The men walked forward, waiting for the ramp to drop.

Chewbacca led the way to the ramp, opening it, then stood aside so Leia and Han could precede him. The air smelled odd, and it took Han a moment to understand why. These people still used fossil fuels.

One of the men smiled, then threw something. It hit the ground as the trio ducked, and a blast of light drove them into darkness.

"Princess, shall I wait for another vehicle?" C3P0 asked plaintively. He reached the ram, seeing the crumpled forms, then the men beyond. "Oh dear."

Prime Minister Kayabuki rubbed her forehead listening as the police reported. The spaceport control system had been expertly hacked, and the _Millennium Falcon_ directed to the pad halfway across the spaceport. Security troops had been dispatched, but their vehicle had been blasted with some kind of energy weapon her people had never seen before. All but two of the ready reaction team had been killed, the survivors were not expected to live.

The crew of _Millennium Falcon_ were missing. No demands had been made. Yet.

"Are there any clues at all as to who might have done this?"

"No madam Primer Minister." The Police Captain replied. "The problem is we have too many options. Rus Chinois Eurocon American Empire, assorted odds and sods of terrorist organizations, even that Galactic Empire out there, you name it."

She sighed. "Thank you, Captain. Please, do what you can." She waited until he left the office, then touched her intercom. "Get Chief Aramaki, and have him at my office immediately."

The pool chair was fully reclined, the occupant in a bikini laying in the sun, evening out her tan. Motoko Kusanagi was a tall woman with a lithe form that drew eyes whenever she walked down the streets. Her eyes were a deep violet setting off her dark hair and every inch of exposed skin was flawless. When she dressed for operations she wore leg warmers and a revealing bodysuit with Bomber jacket that heightened that reaction. Her smooth voice and calm persona made her easy to talk to and many a criminal on all levels of her government and organized crime had seen her and dismissed her without even thinking. Something they had regretted in prison or for the rest of their lives; what little might have remained.

Beyond the windows an ocean rolled silently, palm trees moving gently in a tropical breeze. Yet within her mind, it was not silent.

{Major, we'll need the full team for this abduction.} Her boss Chief Aramaki was saying. Her communications implant carried his voice with perfect fidelity.

[Any idea yet who did it?] She asked unmoving. Her lips didn't even move.

{Not as yet.} He replied. {But you know as well as I that we cannot depend on this New Republic's patience. Their ambassador has already registered protests and threatened vengeance.}

[Then we had best find them quickly.]

{Hopefully the other member from the Republic will be more understanding.}

She rolled to her feet, touching a control. The idyllic scene vanished, replaced by the city skyline. She crossed the room headed for her closet. She continued the conversation as she walked. [Another one?]

{Yes.} She could almost see him cocking his head. {There is a smaller Republic vessel, about the size of one of the Self Defense Force fighters approaching. The pilot claims to be the brother of the Princess.}

She sighed, pulling on her uniform blouse, tying the necktie with negligent ease. [It is highly unlikely that he will be more understanding if his sister is in danger.] She slid on her skirt, and picked up her uniform tunic. [I will meet him at the spaceport.] Striding across the room, she slid it on, buttoning it up then flipped the belt strap over her shoulder, buckling it around her waist. Gone was the lazy beach girl. Now she was the Major.

[Togusa, meet me at the Spaceport. Verify the pad that the Republic ship will land on.]

Understood, Major.

[Batou, gather the team.]

(Copy that, Major.)

"No I don't know what happened, R2." Luke said. He had been meeting with the stellar cartography department on Coruscant when he had suddenly felt Leia disappear. She wasn't dead, he was sure of that. He had begged off, and headed off in his X-wing alone. Now through the dust cloud behind him, the fighter roared toward the planet.

R2 bleeped. "No R2. I can't leave it to the locals. Leia is in danger."

The droid whimpered sadly.

Luke sighed, closing his eyes, trying to sense Leia. Whoever had her must know something about the Force; they must have sedated her. He snarled. If they had hurt her…

No.

He calmed himself, flipping his com switch. "Nihon approach, this is New Republic X-wing fighter Red five requesting approach instructions."

"You are welcome to our nation, Red five. Please follow approach corridor exactly."

"Understood Nihon Approach."

The man stiffened. "Red five." He looked through the book. "Luke Skywalker, The brother of our captive."

His superior smirked. "Then by all means we must make sure they have a reunion." He picked up the phone, punching the numbers swiftly. "Bay 52."

"This is Niihama field, landing pad five-two is cleared and ready for your arrival."

Luke stiffened. Something about that bland voice... "Understood, Niihama field. On approach." He smoothly turned to guide toward the pad. R2 whistled and he smiled. "Of course it's a trap, R2. But we can't find out what is happening without springing it."

%Major you were right.% A deep voice whispered in Major Kusunagi's head

[Talk to me, Ishikawa.]

%The approach was hacked again from a different location. Sending it to Pazu now.%

She nodded to herself. [Batou?]

(Boma has sent us the landing zone. Saito is already in position at the central complex.)

[We'd prefer them alive, but do what you have to do.] She looked up. "Step on it, Togusa." The tires bit into the roadway

The truck pulled up outside bay 52. Four men dropped from the truck, which pulled forward then aside to allow traffic to pass by. One man walked nonchalantly down the road toward the central facility while a second dropped into a crouch behind the truck. The others moved to the blast proof door into the bay. One slid in a card, tapping the buttons on the keypad in a rapid manner. The doors opened, and they stepped in. They looked up at the T shaped alien ship approaching.

The man who would block the reaction team from the complex dropped behind a stack of oil barrels. He drew the alien weapon, looking at it admiringly. His nation couldn't make anything like it, yet. But their backers had promised to arm their entire army with these wonder weapons once they could move in. He heard an engine screaming, and looked up. A civilian car spun through the gate. Two people, a man and a woman sat in the front seats. Behind them came the heavy transport with the reaction team.

He shrugged, aiming the weapon toward the car in the lead. Whoever they were, they had just gotten themselves killed.

The men smiled as the ship settled down. The canopy opened, and the young man removed his helmet. He stood, then suddenly leaped straight up, the grenade the attacker had thrown landing in the open cockpit. They gasped as it smoothly closed, the stun field blocked by the clearsteel.

Before they could move the man had landed, a weapon with some kind of energy blade lancing out.

Saito opened the eyepatch over his left eye. The uplink to the satellite gave him literally a god's eye view. He spotted the ambushers, and his left forefinger tightened.

The theory of cone rifle technology is relatively simple. A projectile less than 2mm in diameter surrounded by a fluorocarbon sabot 15 millimeters in diameter and behind it was something better classified as a high explosive than a propellant. The weapon kicked, recoil buffers lowering it to that of a 12 gauge shotgun instead of something that would have ripped off his arm. The bore went from 15mm to just a trifle more that two, the sabot subliming as it was rammed down the meter and a half barrel at a speed of over 1.3 kilometers a second. The projectile, a slim finned needle burst out at a much higher speed, closer to 2.5 kilometers a second. Over mach six or six times the speed of sound. At any range where it was viable the bullet would arrive at least six seconds before the sound of it's passage. It's effective range was functionally line of site at fifteen kilometers, and this was a lot less than 15 kilometers…

Kusanagi stared at the man with the odd weapon who rose from behind the barrels to their right. Another was behind the truck to the left. Before she could even think of it one of the men flipped into the air, his head exploding. Less than a second later the other slammed against the wall, crumpling into a heap.

Togusa hit the brakes, expertly sliding to a stop. The vehicle had not even stopped when the passenger door flipped open and Kusanagi launched herself into the air, landing in a run toward bay 52. Togusa sighed climbing from the car, his badge case in his hand. "Togusa, Section 9!" He shouted as the reaction team leaped from the vehicle. "Check the snipers."

The door slammed open, and Major Kusanagi aimed her pistol at the man standing below the nose of the X-wing. He looked at her with an appraising manner she wasn't used to. There was a beam of light sticking up from a weapon in his hand, and she realized it must be- what was it called- a lightsaber.

The man stood from his ready stance, the beam vanishing. "And who," He asked, "are you?"

Luke looked after the two men he had pummeled against the wall after first slicing up the weapons they had drawn. He had just finished when the hatch of the landing bay slammed open, and a woman charged in. She aimed her pistol at him, then lifted it away, aiming upward. He reached with the Force, and froze in shock. While she looked like an attractive woman a few years older than himself he felt only a small amount of life from her. Almost as if part of a human had been transplanted into a machine. But the human part of her wasn't his enemy. He shut down the lightsaber, relaxing. "And who, are you?"

He was a few years younger than she appeared, and his movements reminded her of a jungle cat. She had noticed a slight hesitation when he spoke. Almost, she thought, as if he were going to ask 'what' are you. "Major Kusanagi, Section nine."

"Luke Skywalker." He answered.

"There were men who came in before me." She said, eyes moving to check everywhere anyone could have hidden.

"They're over there." He motioned toward a storage crate. She quirked an eyebrow then walked over to it flipping the lid up. The two men were unconscious, folded until they fit into the crate. Surprisingly there was no blood or bruises.

"Efficient." She murmured.

"Their own fault." He picked up an odd metal cylinder, holding it out. "Imperial issue stun grenade."

She took it, turning it. The material was a very light metal, but none she had ever seen. "The American Empire uses these?"

He smiled. "No, The Galactic Empire." He shrugged. "But when you make a few trillion of them, they often end up in criminal hands. We even use them."

"Ah. What does it do?"

"It creates a blast of light and sound that disrupts the nervous system." He said. "I don't know the technical specifications."

"Ishikawa will." She bounced it. An average man could have thrown this anywhere in the bay. "How did you escape the effects?"

"It is deflected by solid surfaces, and I move very quickly. "

She stiffened. (We're going in.) Batou's voice came through.

The man in charge of the cell sighed. "Leave the equipment." He picked up the codebook, dropping it in a bucket of water. The paper dissolved into a soup of particles and ink flakes.

Suddenly the door exploded inward. A tall thin man with cold eyes stood there, his left hand economically cocking the grenade launcher under his assault rifle. The technician leaped for his weapon, ending in a sprawl as the cold man laced him with a three round burst. The commander bit down hard, then collapsed into a chair. The cold man leaped forward, dropping his weapon, prying the man's jaw open. Then cursed, shoving the body aside.

Major, I took the control center. But their leader took poison. No one left to interrogate.

[No help for it, Pazu. Call in the forensic team.]

Kusanagi looked at Skywalker. "We tried to take the slicer team that set up the Ambassador's capture. Unfortunately, they are dead. Thanks to you, we have someone to interrogate."

"Have there been any demands?"

She chuckled. "We have claims of responsibility from seventeen different terrorist organizations and demands from five of them so far, but no claims from any government. The suspects are many, the obvious ones few."

He sighed. "Who is in charge of this case?"

"As of today, Section nine is." She replied. "If you will come with me, I will take you to Chief Aramaki."

"I need my droid."

"Your what?" He motioned toward his ship. A small squat machine rose, then squealed as it lifted into the air. She stared astonished as without any sign of propulsion or sound of any kind of machinery it dropped gently to the ground. It gave a chirrup that sounded petulant, then a leg slid forward, and it rolled toward it's pilot.

"I'm ready to go now."

Luke looked at the reaction team with an appraising eye, then at the bodies of the two snipers. He knelt, picking up the weapon one of them had been ready to use. "Old D-7 blaster rifle."

"Do you know the technical specification of that weapon?" The Major asked.

"Not really but the principle is simple. A small portion of a volatile gas- usually we use one called tibanna gathered from class 7 gas giants- is injected into the firing chamber and struck with a 40 kilowatt electrical charge. The gas becomes an ionized plasma with a temperature of about 4,000 degrees Kelvin, as hot as the surface of a small star. That packet of energy is then directed down the barrel by magnetic rings in the barrel itself, traveling at 253 meters per second." He handed the weapon to Kusanagi, who looked it over with a professional eye.

"Range?" She asked.

"Maximum effective range is 40 meters, though with the correct targeting and sighting software, it is deadly to a kilometer before the packet destabilizes."

"So it is the Empire that is doing this?"

"Perhaps." Skywalker stood. While a few centimeters shorter than her, the young man had presence. "However the D7 is obsolete. They've been on the civilian market for about thirty years now. They were made originally for what we called the Clone Wars. So perhaps it was the Empire. But it could have been pirates, smugglers, maybe even a planetary government that is operating outside the law. As close as you are to Hutt space that is possible too."

Presence and honesty, she mused. Twice now the man could have laid the blame on his enemies, but instead had told her all of the possibilities. In her line of work honesty was as refreshing as a cold shower. "If you are done here, we can go to see the Chief."

"Please." He waited until she motioned toward her car, and walked over. Togusa held the gull wing door open for him.

"This is Togusa, one of our senior operatives."

"Pleased to meet you." Togusa commented, extending a hand. The man looked at it, then reached out, clasping it. He looked at his droid, and the little cylinder lifted into the air, squealing. It floated across the intervening space, then slid into the vehicle

"The same here." The man replied before entering the vehicle.

And polite. She wondered what he was hiding.

The city looked like any modern city where anti-gravity wasn't common, he thought. Wide stretches of concrete or tarmac expressly for the masses of vehicles that seemed to be everywhere. They swirled like blown leaves, changing positions as rapidly, and without collisions; though he did see several places where such had occurred before.

He had used the Force to examine the man driving. Like the woman he had that anomalous feel, machine and human combined; yet his was almost minuscule in comparison to her.

They came to a small skyscraper and went down the ramp into the parking area.

"If you please." The Major stepped from the car with a grace at odds with her clothes. He wondered why she wore an open wrap around her legs when everyone else he had seen wore leg covering outerwear. Perhaps gender specific clothing? Yet it was obviously military in cut. He climbed out of the car with a bit of trouble. He noticed a twitch in the woman's lips as if she wanted to smile at him, and he gave her a self deprecating smile of his own, which caused her to smile in return. Again he did his magic trick, lifting the small droid from the vehicle. It squealed, then gave forth with a series of almost musical complaints. "R2 they don't seem to have vehicles that are droid friendly, so quit complaining or I will leave you here." The machine stopped in mid rant, then gave another series of signals followed by a forlorn whistle. He knelt, rubbing the round carapace with a gentle almost loving hand. "Yes, I know. But we don't know where 3PO is right now. We'll find him, I promise."

They walked across the parking area to the elevator. "Major!" He looked back, then spun as a monstrous blue machine headed toward them. One of the heavy arms waved as if the word had not been sufficient to gain the woman's attention. While he was alarmed, both the Major and the man Togusa acted as if it were normal. The machine stopped a meter or so away, then waved it's arms. "Mister Pazu has delivered the two men you captured to interrogation four and five respectively. Both have already been checked for suicide devices, and are in level four containment."

"Excellent." She replied. "However our visitor is the one that captured them." She looked at him, and there was an interesting light in her eyes, almost as if his talk with R2 had made up her mind. "Mister Skywalker-"

"Please," he raised a hand. "I was a farmboy until a handful of years ago. My name is Luke."

She smiled. "Very well, Luke. But if we are giving up formality, my name is Motoko."

"Very well, Motoko." He replied. "What is that?"

"An AI robot called a tachikoma. We have nine of them assigned to our unit." She walked over, and rested a hand on the machine's head almost as if petting a favorite puppy. It wriggled a little, heightening the effect. "This one is Batou's own unit; which seems to think no one can deliver a message as quickly as he can."

"He?" Skywalker asked.

"You refer to your... droid as he don't you?"

"Yes." He looked at the larger robot with interest. "A fully functional autonomous AI? That is not common."

"It is not?" Motoko was surprised. Then she smiled again. "The fact is it's not common here either. The original Tachikoma this one replaced was a fluke of programming caused by a natural oil used by Batou. This spread before we had discovered the fault, because they are designed to synchronize their data.

"We considered reinitializing them but discovered that they had developed individuality. Except for three, all of the first set were transferred back to the labs for analysis. But those three without orders acted to save Batou, showing love and self sacrifice.

"When we initialized a second set of nine, they picked up all the quirks of the originals. That group of tachikomas sacrificed themselves to stop a nuclear missile attack.

"For a while I was away from section 9, and discovered that they had hidden their memories on the net. When I returned, I had already reinitialized five of them, and even gave four of them names. This one I never got around to naming."

"We both decided that Mister Batou got that honor." The tachikoma interjected. "But he hasn't named me yet." The robot lifted and dropped it's torso as it gave the robotic equivalent of a much put upon sigh.

"Yet you're R2 seems to have an AI."

Luke chuckled. "No. He's just got an attitude." The little droid berated him, and he chuckled again. "Well you do, R2." The humans laughed. "Actually we have discovered that if you do not wipe their memories periodically, droids will develop what we call a 'counterpart' relationship with other droids, machines, even with other peoples from our many worlds.

"I have never wiped R2, so he and my fighter work like a well made clock, and other R2 units have to learn his little tricks to get it to work properly."

"Could I spend some time chatting with your little robot sir? Please?" The tachikoma asked in a wheedling tone.

"Well, R2?" The little droid looked up at the to him, enormous robot. He gave a mournful wail. "No you don't have to." The plucky little droid gave another hoot, then rolled over to stand beside it.

The humans entered the elevator, which shot upward rapidly. On the 19th floor it opened, and the Major led the way down the hall. "Togusa, head down to the interrogation block" The man turned, returning to the elevator. She paused at the Chief's door, knocking softly.

Chief Daisuke Aramaki was a short balding man with two tufts of hair to the sides that almost looked like wings. He stood from his desk as they entered.

"Chief, this is Luke Skywalker of the Republic. Luke, this is my commanding officer Daisuke Aramaki, Chief of Public Security Section 9."

"If it were not for the circumstances I would say it is an honor to meet you, sir." Aramaki gave him a short bow.

"I understand, Chief." Luke returned the bow. "May I ask how far your investigation has gone?"

"Yes. Please, join me." Aramaki tilted his head, then motioned to a conversation pit in the corner of the room surrounded by windows.

A humanoid robot actually designed to look female entered, carrying a tray with cups and tea The three took seats as the robot served. The Major gave the gist of the situation; the _Millennium Falcon_ suddenly directed into a trap, the reaction team dead thanks to weapons beyond their own technology. Then Luke's arrival and the same attempt.

"It is thanks to you that we have anyone to question." Aramaki put in. "Once we have a handle on what is happening, we can find and rescue your sister. Until then, we have a safe apartment here you can use."

"Afterward, perhaps." Luke demurred. "I would like to be present when you interrogate the prisoner. I have some skill in detecting when someone lies."

Aramaki and the Major looked at each other for a moment, then he looked at the Jedi. "I will warn you our rules of jurisprudence may not be like yours. I will not allow you to interfere with our processes. If that is understood, I agree." Luke bowed in reply. "Major, I leave the interrogation in you hands."

"Understood." She stood, motioned for the Jedi to follow, and left the room.

As the elevator went down She noticed him looking at her appraisingly. She was used to it when people knew what she was, but how would he know? "Is something bothering you, Luke?"

"I was wondering." He looked away, as if he had X-ray eyes and had seen what her body really was. "You don't…feel right to me."

"I don't?" She asked. "What about Togusa?"

"He feels wrong as well... Just not as much." He blushed. "No offense."

"None taken." She sighed. "What do you know about our planet?"

"Little." He admitted. "The dust cloud moved across your planet over five centuries ago, back when the Old Republic still held sway. Most records of your system were destroyed during the war before the Emperor took control."

"We have always been a people worried about productivity." Kusanagi told him. "We were one of the leading suppliers of cybernetics, so we were centuries ahead of the other worlds; We are also constantly worried about those who had been injured in wars and industrial accidents, so we were far ahead of you out there in prosthetics even then.

"When the dust cloud separated us from the rest of the galaxy we no longer had access to space, and there was turmoil because our planet couldn't support the numbers we had then; around 12 billion people. There were several nasty wars, and the Nations we have now formed from that chaos. Nihon was lucky, we are an island nation and our own defense forces were able to keep others from invading.

"We regressed from the Galaxy's technology except in one area, an area I believe we have outstripped the rest of you because we felt it necessary. Your Ambassador," She said it in a slightly insulting manner, "Was amazed by it, though he seems to think we're not much above stone knives and clubs otherwise.

"Any part of the human body we discovered could be replaced. By cloning if possible, but if not, by technical means, because even with cloning, there is sometimes rejection of transplants."

"We've gotten better with it." Luke commented. "If you call mass producing them at an accelerated rate to fight a war three decades ago 'better'."

She nodded at his deprecation. To make a comment about his own society like that! Then again, the Empire and 'New' Republic had happened after that. "Our world took biomechanical technology to a high level. Synthetic polymer muscles, polycarbonate matrix bone, even duplicating nervous tissue was discovered. It began with robotics, as you no doubt noticed. A lot of duties, secretarial work, servants, even pilots could be replicated, so a segment of our society was readily replaced.

But it went beyond that; they discovered how to link into the human brain so that anyone could receive an implant that allows them to access computers directly." She moved her hair aside, showing her I/O ports.

"It speeds up the teaching process enormously because you can literally download all of the subject matter into a child's brain. Then any 'schooling' is merely a teacher showing them how to access and use the data."

"But that could lead to mind control, could it not?"

"Yes. There were some backlashes back when the implant process began about a century ago. Even attempts by governments to create the perfect soldier. But that didn't work very well." At his quirked eyebrow she laughed. "The problem with a repressive government is they aren't the only source of information for their people. By it's nature, 'brainwashing' as it was once called turns out something not much more efficient than the average robot.

"Also, as comprehensive as the programming might be, it can only cover what the creators imagine, so there are flaws in it. When someone that has been programmed hits something totally outside that programming one of three things happens. They crack up entirely, reject reality and sometimes ends up in a fugue state, or their programming breaks under the stress.

Societies that did use it found themselves outstripped by the others in the fields of technology. To try to keep up, they had to leave some of their people free of it, and those usually ended up deleting all of the 'we're right and the rest of the world is wrong' dogma sooner or later.

"Eventually they learned how to imprint all of a person's memories onto a cyber-brain."

"And you have one of those."

"Yes. But it was hideously expensive at the start; my body back when they began cost as much as your ship. They are both transports for only one being, but there are things I can do and places my body can go that your ship cannot. Now it only costs as much as the average car you saw on our motorways."

"You volunteered for this?"

"Most do." She sighed. _Damn, how had he known that_? "You see, to handle a number of the more complex or dangerous jobs in the government, cyberization became necessary. The military uses them for special operations troops. A cyberized body can endure greater stress than a flesh and blood form." She caught his look. "Oh their physical bodies are perfectly safe, kept in stasis until their missions are completed, or they decide to go career and keep the cyber-bodies-"

"You sidestepped the question, Major." He looked at her. "I feel a sense of longing in you. A longing for a normal life. One you did not have."

She wanted to curse. "I was one of the first fully cyberized humans. The first completely successful one. It was done to save my life." She leaned into the wall. "My family was in an aircraft when it crashed. All I remember of that crash was screaming, flame, unendurable pain, then blackness. For a long time I was in a coma. Then I awoke, and I was in my first cyber body. My uncle worked in the Bureau of Medical Experimentation. There had been some small scale military cyberization before, but he used his pull to have my memories transferred to that body. I was six years old at the time."

His face showed concern. "So you had no choice."

"Of course I had a choice." She almost snarled. "I could have died, asked them to pull the plug and clear my mind from the biotechnical prison they had created for me. But to a child death is something terrifying and unknown. I'd had enough nightmares in my coma to see death as staying in it. I selfishly held onto my life. I wanted to live, at least as long as either of my parents had.

"The government was amazed. They had problems with rejection more on the mental level than physical. People who were transferred to cyber brains frantically wanting to return to the biological one. It seemed for a time, that I would be the only successful transplant ever.

"But there was another survivor from that crash, a young boy a couple of years older than I. He was crippled except for his left arm. One of the doctors mentioned him to me. Being conscious, with no family, the government could not do with him what they had with me. The children's rights advocate would not allow it. He had been offered full cyberization, but ignored them."

She sighed. "He was the only link remaining of my life before, and I didn't want to lose him. I offered to try to get through to him. We were introduced, but I was yet another fixture in his surroundings, so he ignored me initially. Weeks passed, and I was nothing more than a quiet presence. Then one day he suddenly told me he'd accept a full cyber body if I could fold an origami crane using just my left hand. I tried, but it as too complex, my cyberized hand not supple enough then, and the software to drive it not yet comprehensive enough. I finally gave up, and left him.

"That is sad."

She nodded ruefully. "It got worse for him. He eventually accepted a fully cyberized body. We actually fought him when a government official here tried to arrange a massacre of immigrants to force a policy change. He was not part of that, beyond being a tool of the Minister, but was later killed by an injection into his I/O port to help cover it up."

The lift doors opened, and she motioned. "So." Luke said. You were a little girl in a full sized body?"

"Oh no." She laughed. "I was a seven year old girl in a body appropriate to that age. But unlike a human child I could not grow larger, and every couple of years I had to transfer to a more mature body. Picture learning how to walk and pick things up over and over. But I became used to it, for it was the only life I remembered. When I reached maturity I joined the Self Defense Force special operations units, and rose to the rank of Major. That was long before I met Chief Aramaki and was recruited. I have worked for him ever since."

And how long have you worked for him?"

She looked at him, batting her eyelashes. "Why Mister Skywalker. Isn't it impolite to ask a girl her age out there?" She laughed throatily at his blush. "Look at it this way, I am older than some, and younger than others in the Section." She stopped at the interrogation room door. _Take that, Farm-boy_!


End file.
